A Theory of Fields

Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam

Drawing upon insights from several disciplines this book presents a bold new theory for understanding change, stability and the logic of social organization in modern, complex societies.

A Theory of Fields

Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam

Description

Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order-from political movements to market meltdowns-is one of the enduring problems of social science. A Theory of Fields draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action.

In a work of remarkable synthesis, imagination, and analysis, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam propose that social change and social order can be understood through what they call strategic action fields. They posit that these fields are the general building blocks of political and economic life, civil society, and the state, and the fundamental form of order in our world today. Similar to Russian dolls, they are nested and connected in a broader environment of almost countless proximate and overlapping fields. Fields are mutually dependent; change in one often triggers change in another. At the core of the theory is an account of how social actors fashion and maintain order in a given field. This sociological theory of action, what they call "social skill," helps explain what individuals do in strategic action fields to gain cooperation or engage in competition.

To demonstrate the breadth of the theory, Fligstein and McAdam make its abstract principles concrete through extended case studies of the Civil Rights Movement and the rise and fall of the market for mortgages in the U.S. since the 1960s. The book also provides a "how-to" guide to help others implement the approach and discusses methodological issues.

With a bold new approach, A Theory of Fields offers both a rigorous and practically applicable way of thinking through and making sense of social order and change-and how one emerges from the other-in modern, complex societies.

A Theory of Fields

Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Gist of It Introduction - The Central Elements of the Theory - Other Perspectives - Conclusion Chapter 2: Micro-Foundations Introduction - Meaning and Membership - The Collective as Existential Refuge - Social Skill - Social Skill in Action - The Scope of the Theory - Institutional Politics - Social movements - Markets and the Economy - The Nonprofit Sector - Conclusion Chapter 3: Macro Implications Introduction - The "Embeddedness " of Strategic Action Fields - An Excursus on Formal Organization and Bureaucracy - The State as a system of strategic action fields - The Impact of State Fields on Non-state strategic action fields - The Dependence of States and State Fields on Non-state strategic action fields - Internal Governance Units - Higher Education and the Professions - Conclusion Chapter 4: Change and Stability in Strategic Action Fields Introduction - Current Debates - The Emergence of Strategic Action Fields - Sustaining a Settlement - Settlements and Ruptures - Reestablishing - Field Stability - The Relationship between Social Skill and the State of the Strategic Action Field - Social Skill and the Emergence of Fields - Social Skill and the Reproduction of Fields - Social Skill and the Transformation of Fields - Conclusion Chapter 5: Illustrating the Perspective Introduction - The Civil Rights Struggle, 1932-1980 - Setting the Stage - The Field of Racial Politics - Destabilizing Changes - The Episode of Contention and the Rise of the Civil Rights Movement - A New Settlement - The Declining Salience of the Cold War Dynamic - The Revenge of the Dixiecrats and the End of the New Deal Electoral Regime - The Rise of Black Power and the Rupture in the Movement strategic action fields - The Institutionalization of the Civil Rights Movement and Its Impact on Other Strategic Action Fields - Summing up - The Transformation of the U.S. Mortgage Market, 1969-2010 - The Dominant Strategic Action Fields of the Mortgage Market, 1934-1987 - Changes that Destabilized the Mortgage Market, 1969-1987 - Settlement and the new Strategic Action Field - The Rise of the Industrial model of the MBS market, 1993-2007 - The Causes of the Crisis - The Impact of the Strategic Action Field based on the Industrial model on other strategic action fields - Conclusion Chapter 6 Methods Introduction The Roadmap How to Tell if a Strategic Action Field Exists Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 1 The Problem of the State in Relation to Strategic Action Fields Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 2 Social Skill, Strategic Action, and the Question of Entrepreneurship Considering Different Philosophies of Science and Methodological Strategies A Positivist Approach to Strategic Action Fields Realist Approaches to Strategic Action Fields The Problem of Empiricism Conclusion Chapter 7 A Theory of Strategic Action Fields So what is new here? The Problem of the Accumulation of Knowledge in the Social Sciences The Surprising Discovery of Fields Toward a Collaborative Program of Theory and Research on Fields Bibliography

A Theory of Fields

Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam

Author Information

Neil Fligstein, Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, and Doug McAdam, Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

Neil Fligstein is the Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. A renowned scholar of economic sociology, organizations, and political sociology, he is the author or coauthor of six books, including The Architecture of Markets and Euroclash: The EU, European Identity, and the Future of Europe.

Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books in the area of political sociology, with an emphasis on social movements and revolutions. Among his best known works are Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, Freedom Summer, and (with Sid Tarrow and Charles Tilly) Dynamics of Contention.

A Theory of Fields

Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam

Reviews and Awards

"In this bold and sweeping new work, Fligstein and McAdam make the first global contribution to sociological field theory since Bourdieu's Distinction. Finding order and turbulence not only in the semi-autonomous fields that others have investigated, but also in the complex interplay of social movements and the state, Fligstein and McAdam produce a vision that is theoretically insightful, empirically generative and will re-energize the quest for a fundamental grasp of the dynamics of large-scale social interaction." - John Levi Martin, University of Chicago

"In this much-anticipated book, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam bring their rich and influential strands of scholarly work together to develop a provocative account of how skilled individuals upset established routines and build new political and organizational fields. The core of their argument emphasizes on how people deploy resources, build connections, and forge new practices. In so doing, they place agency in a new and analytically tractable light. This signal accomplishment will be essential reading to all political and organizational scholars." - Walter W. Powell, Stanford University

"In A Theory of Fields, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam provide a powerful synthetic approach to the analysis of interconnected "strategic action fields" that anchor interaction and meaningful membership. This conceptual language breaches distinctions among political, economic, and other sociologies to advance a compelling general approach to the most basic sociological questions of order and change. Fligstein and McAdam have accomplished the difficult task of grappling with fundamental issues of social theory while advancing a program of social research that should both engage advanced scholars and inspire those earlier in their careers." - Elisabeth S. Clemens, University of Chicago

"A Theory of Fields is certainly an abundant repertoire of good reasons for using the concept of field as a versatile tool for social research." - Angelo Salento, Sociologica